Tavarius Shine hit a halfcourt shot at the first-half buzzer to give #10 Fork Union a 37-36 halftime lead over #4 Fishburne. Then the Caissons stormed out of the locker room with a 19-3 run in the first 3:49 of the second half and never looked back en route to posting a 94-73 win Tuesday in Waynesboro, Va.
Fishburne (21-5) trailed by as many as eight points in the first half as Fork Union, which defeated FMS 69-66 on Jan. 24, controlled pace with its deliberate offense and hard-nosed defense.
“But I thought even in the first half that the game was being played the way we wanted to play,” Fishburne coach Ed Huckaby said afterward.
The buzzer-beater didn’t bother Huckaby as much as what he perceived a lack of total effort from players in the first 20 minutes.
“We had guys taking plays off, and if you’ve got one player taking this play off, and another player taking the next play off, you’re giving plays away, and you can’t afford to do that against a team like Fork Union,” Huckaby said.
There was no lack of effort in the second half. Fishburne took the lead for good just 11 seconds into the half on a three-pointer by Ryan Andino. A steal and fast-break dunk by Shamiek Sheppard 13 seconds later extended the lead to four, and back-to-back threes by Tre Harris and Andino made it 47-37 at the 18:15 mark.
The lead stayed in the double figures until a three from Shine with 3:48 left cut the margin to nine at 76-67. Sheppard scored three the hard way on a dunk in the lane and a free throw after being fouled to make it 79-67 FMS with 2:57 to go, and Fork Union would get no closer.
“It wasn’t about Xs and Os. Coach will tell you that. What he said was about effort. He said if we played hard, played up to what we were capable of, there’s no way anybody in the country can beat us,” Sheppard said.
“We just came out and put in the effort that we needed to put in. We stepped it up on defense and started knocking down some shots,” point guard Jordon Talley said
Sheppard led the Caissons with 23 points. Talley had 17 and Harris had 15 for Fishburne.
Shine scored a game-high 30, 25 in the second half, to lead Fork Union.
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